Due to harsh and humiliating treatment and last-minute flight cancellations, Colombia’s migration agency said on Thursday that it will temporarily halt a program to deport Colombians detected by immigration officers at the US-Mexico border.
According to US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), more over 125,000 Colombians were arrested at the US-Mexico border in 2022, up from roughly 6,200 in 2021.
According to a statement issued by the migration office, they expect to receive around 1,200 migrants aboard planes slated to arrive from the United States during the first week of May. The experimental initiative “mom returns” aimed to return mostly females, minors, and adolescents to Colombia.
According to Colombian authorities, the number of deportation flights to Colombia has climbed to about 20 per month as a result of pressure from US immigration officials to boost expulsions of migrants from the southern border before COVID-19 rules are lifted.
The plan was put on hold when planes planned for May 1 and 2 were canceled, according to Colombia’s migration agency.
“Before the scheduled arrival of the flights… both were canceled by North American immigration agencies,” Fernando Garcia, head of Colombia’s migration office, said in a statement.
The hold was just for family-oriented planes, according to a US official.
The presence of extra migrants aboard aircraft was not immediately verified by Colombia’s migration agency.
Garcia called the use of handcuffs for some migrants’ wrists and feet before boarding and during the trip brutal and filthy.
Garcia said that repeated complaints regarding detention center conditions and alleged abuse on flights “represented a determining factor in the decisions adopted in the last few hours.”
A representative from ICE (U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement) was called, but there was no immediate response.
The COVID constraints, as well as Title 42, will be repealed on May 11, allowing US authorities to return migrants to Mexico without giving them the option to seek asylum.
